January 9, 2017

It’s time to resuscitate the Asia-Pacific Quad

The following article appeared in Order from Chaos, the blog of the Brookings Institution. An excerpt is below and the full text can be accessed here.

[T]he rationale for a similar arrangement today is even
greater and the political circumstances are also more favorable. Having
returned to power, Abe has radically reformed Japan’s national security
structures. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been diplomatically active
and has prioritized a closer partnership in the Indo-Pacific with the United
States and Abe’s Japan. For many years, questions remained about Australia’s
commitment and inclination, colored by Rudd’s unilateral decision to withdraw from
the Quad. But while the Australian economy remains heavily reliant on resource
exports to China, Canberra is not under any illusions about its strategic
orientation. In fact, developments in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean seem
to have hardened the resolve of Australia’s security establishment. There is
also a case for including more countries into an emerging soft security
architecture for the region, including possibly Indonesia and the Philippines.